Trump Geothermal Lease Sale Collides With Planned Nevada Solar Farms

3-line summary

• The US Bureau of Land Management plans to auction 83 geothermal development parcels covering 265,691 acres in Nevada this Tuesday; the Trump administration has promoted geothermal as an 'always-on' power source while largely excluding wind and solar from federal permitting-acceleration measures, Reuters reported.
• NextEra Energy's planned 1,000 MW Sawtooth Energy Center in Nye County overlaps with geothermal parcels on about 6,000 acres, roughly 60% of the project site; NextEra requested the BLM exclude, withhold, or reconfigure three parcels, but the BLM denied the request in August, citing multiple-use management of federal land, and told NextEra to coordinate operations, saying its project would hold 'senior right' if approved first. Leeward Renewable Energy's roughly 735-acre Lone Mountain solar project in Esmeralda County and projects by Invenergy (300 MW Nivloc) and Arevia Power (1,500 MW Gold Dust) also overlap with geothermal parcels.
• As of an August map, six geothermal parcels overlapped with four solar developments; one parcel that fully overlapped with Sawtooth is not on the auction site and appears to have been removed from the recent sale list. In 2025 the BLM had canceled environmental review for the Esmeralda 7 solar complex (seven projects, 62,000 acres), though individual projects can reapply separately.

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